Sarah Garcia VZ WGO/7 March 2, 2014 French Veil Laws Are Taking Away Womens Religious Freedom The

French Veil Laws are stripping women of their religious and human rights. The French have passed a series of laws that ban Islamic face and body veils, one of the main reasons being that with a full face veil on one cannot tell the true identity of the woman wearing the veil. These laws though do state that the French have nothing against the Muslim religion. My opinion is that these laws should be done away with because everyone should be treated equal and should not be discriminated against. Islamic veils are a part of the Muslim tradition, religion, and culture and the veils should not be abolished. When people see nuns walking down the street in their habit the nuns are not told to take off their veil but, when Muslim women are walking down the street they are sometimes forced to take off their head veil (Costa-Kostritsky, 2012). The laws violate womens rights and freedom of religion (BBC.com, 2013). The Muslim veil is also a big part of Muslim religion and identity (theguardian.com, 2012). In conclusion, Muslim women should be able to wear their head veils because it is a part of their religion and everyone has the right to freedom of religion. The French try to defend themselves, along with the veils laws, by saying that it is degrading to women to wear the veils and that the Muslim men, the womens fathers, brother, and husbands, are forcing them to wear a veil but that is certainly not the case at all. Annie Sugier, who is a part of the International League for Womens rights, states that The full-face veil, by literally burying the body and the face, constitutes a true deletion of the woman as an individual in public (BBC.com, 20130. That

statement, to the Muslim women, is wrong and is not very convincing because it is the womans choice to wear the head veils, not anyone elses. Another argument to protect the veil laws is It is law against practices and not against traditions or values (thelocal.fr, 2013). That statement is insinuation that the French Veil Laws are not against the religion but just the practices of the religion, but if you are against the practice of something doesnt that mean that you are against the whole idea of that subject? These arguments are not very convincing to me because there are answers and even better arguments against the veil laws to rule these arguments out. In my opinion these laws should not be in place because they are just another excuse to control the world. These laws are against religious rights and should be annulled because we should not be discriminating against each other according to religious beliefs. My reasoning is that these laws should have never been put into place at all.

Bibliography "French Veil Law: Muslim Woman's Challenge in Strasbourg." Www.bbc.co.uk. N.p., 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25118160>. "France Forced to Defend Ban on Islamic Veil." Www.thelocal.fr. N.p., 22 July 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.thelocal.fr/20130722/france-defends-ban-on-islamic-veil>. "France Defends Full-face Veil Ban at European Human Rights Court." Www.america.aljazeera.com/. N.p., 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/27/francedefends-fullfaceveilbanateuropeanrightscourt.html>. Wallach Scott, Joan. "France's Ban on the Islamic Veil Has Little to Do with Female Emancipation."Www.theguardian.com. N.p., 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

<http://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/aug/26/france-ban-islamic-veil>. Costa-Kostritsky, Valeria. "France and the Veil the Dark Side of the Law." Www.opendemocracy.net. N.p., 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/valeria-costakostritsky/france-and-veil-%E2%80%93-dark-side-of-law>.